CHAPTER XVI
THE MOST CHIVALROUS ADVENTURE OF THE GOOD SHIP ROSE
"He is brass within, and steel without, With beams on his topcastle strong; And eighteen pieces of ordinance He carries on either side along."
Sir Andrew Barton.
Let us take boat, as Amyas did, at Whitehall-stairs, and slip down aheadof him under old London Bridge, and so to Deptford Creek, where remains,as it were embalmed, the famous ship Pelican, in which Drake had sailedround the world. There she stands, drawn up high and dry upon the sedgybank of Thames, like an old warrior resting after his toil. Nailed uponher mainmast are epigrams and verses in honor of her and of her captain,three of which, by the Winchester scholar, Camden gives in his History;and Elizabeth's self consecrated her solemnly, and having banqueted onboard, there and then honored Drake with the dignity of knighthood. "Atwhich time a bridge of planks, by which they came on board, broke underthe press of people, and fell down with a hundred men upon it, who,notwithstanding, had none of them any harm. So as that ship may seem tohave been built under a lucky planet."
There she has remained since as a show, and moreover as a sort ofdining-hall for jovial parties from the city; one of which would seemto be on board this afternoon, to judge from the flags which bedizen themasts, the sounds of revelry and savory steams which issue from thosewindows which once were portholes, and the rushing to and fro along theriver brink, and across that lucky bridge, of white-aproned waiters fromthe neighboring Pelican Inn. A great feast is evidently toward, forwith those white-aproned waiters are gay serving men, wearing on theirshoulders the city-badge. The lord mayor is giving a dinner to certaingentlemen of the Leicester house party, who are interested in foreigndiscoveries; and what place so fit for such a feast as the Pelicanitself?
Look at the men all round; a nobler company you will seldom see.Especially too, if you be Americans, look at their faces, and reverencethem; for to them and to their wisdom you owe the existence of yourmighty fatherland.
At the head of the table sits the lord mayor; whom all readers willrecognize at once, for he is none other than that famous Sir EdwardOsborne, clothworker, and ancestor of the dukes of Leeds, whose romancenow-a-days is in every one's hands. He is aged, but not changed, sincehe leaped from the window upon London Bridge into the roaring tidebelow, to rescue the infant who is now his wife. The chivalry andpromptitude of the 'prentice boy have grown and hardened into thethoughtful daring of the wealthy merchant adventurer. There he sits, aright kingly man, with my lord Earl of Cumberland on his right hand, andWalter Raleigh on his left; the three talk together in a low voice onthe chance of there being vast and rich countries still undiscoveredbetween Florida and the River of Canada. Raleigh's half-scientificdeclamation and his often quotations of Doctor Dee the conjuror, haveless effect on Osborne than on Cumberland (who tried many an adventureto foreign parts, and failed in all of them; apparently for the simplereason that, instead of going himself, he sent other people), andRaleigh is fain to call to his help the quiet student who sits on hisleft hand, Richard Hakluyt, of Oxford. But he is deep in talk with areverend elder, whose long white beard flows almost to his waist, andwhose face is furrowed by a thousand storms; Anthony Jenkinson by name,the great Asiatic traveller, who is discoursing to the Christ-churchvirtuoso of reindeer sledges and Siberian steppes, and of the fossilivory, plain proof of Noah's flood, which the Tungoos dig from theice-cliffs of the Arctic sea. Next to him is Christopher Carlile,Walsingham's son-in-law (as Sidney also is now), a valiant captain,afterwards general of the soldiery in Drake's triumphant West Indianraid of 1585, with whom a certain Bishop of Carthagena will hereafterdrink good wine. He is now busy talking with Alderman Hart thegrocer, Sheriff Spencer the clothworker, and Charles Leigh (Amyas'smerchant-cousin), and with Aldworth the mayor of Bristol, and WilliamSalterne, alderman thereof, and cousin of our friend at Bideford. ForCarlile, and Secretary Walsingham also, have been helping them heartand soul for the last two years to collect money for Humphrey and AdrianGilbert's great adventures to the North-West, on one of which Carlilewas indeed to have sailed himself, but did not go after all; I nevercould discover for what reason.
On the opposite side of the table is a group, scarcely less interesting.Martin Frobisher and John Davis, the pioneers of the North-West passage,are talking with Alderman Sanderson, the great geographer and "setterforth of globes;" with Mr. Towerson, Sir Gilbert Peckham, our oldacquaintance Captain John Winter, and last, but not least, with PhilipSidney himself, who, with his accustomed courtesy; has given up hisrightful place toward the head of the table that he may have a knot ofvirtuosi all to himself; and has brought with him, of course, his twoespecial intimates, Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Francis Leigh. They too aretalking of the North-West passage: and Sidney is lamenting that he istied to diplomacy and courts, and expressing his envy of old MartinFrobisher in all sorts of pretty compliments; to which the other repliesthat,
"It's all very fine to talk of here, a sailing on dry land with agood glass of wine before you; but you'd find it another guess sort ofbusiness, knocking about among the icebergs with your beard frozen fastto your ruff, Sir Philip, specially if you were a bit squeamish aboutthe stomach."
"That were a slight matter to endure, my dear sir, if by it I could winthe honor which her majesty bestowed on you, when her own ivory handwaved a farewell 'kerchief to your ship from the windows of GreenwichPalace."
"Well, sir, folks say you have no reason to complain of lack of favors,as you have no reason to deserve lack; and if you can get them bystaying ashore, don't you go to sea to look for more, say I. Eh, MasterTowerson?"
Towerson's gray beard, which has stood many a foreign voyage, both fairand foul, wags grim assent. But at this moment a Waiter enters, and--
"Please my lord mayor's worship, there is a tall gentleman outside,would speak with the Right Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh."
"Show him in, man. Sir Walter's friends are ours."
Amyas enters, and stands hesitating in the doorway.
"Captain Leigh!" cry half a-dozen voices.
"Why did you not walk in, sir?" says Osborne. "You should know your waywell enough between these decks."
"Well enough, my lords and gentlemen. But, Sir Walter--you will excuseme"--and he gave Raleigh a look which was enough for his quick wit.Turning pale as death, he rose, and followed Amyas into an adjoiningcabin. They were five minutes together; and then Amyas came out alone.
In few words he told the company the sad story which we already know.Ere it was ended, noble tears were glistening on some of those sternfaces.
"The old Egyptians," said Sir Edward Osborne, "when they banqueted, seta corpse among their guests, for a memorial of human vanity. Have weforgotten God and our own weakness in this our feast, that He Himselfhas sent us thus a message from the dead?"
"Nay, my lord mayor," said Sidney, "not from the dead, but from therealm of everlasting life."
"Amen!" answered Osborne. "But, gentlemen, our feast is at an end. Thereare those here who would drink on merrily, as brave men should, in spiteof the private losses of which they have just had news; but none herewho can drink with the loss of so great a man still ringing in hisears."
It was true. Though many of the guests had suffered severely by thefailure of the expedition, they had utterly forgotten that fact in theawful news of Sir Humphrey's death; and the feast broke up sadly andhurriedly, while each man asked his neighbor, "What will the queen say?"
Raleigh re-entered in a few minutes, but was silent, and pressing manyan honest hand as he passed, went out to call a wherry, beckoning Amyasto follow him. Sidney, Cumberland, and Frank went with them in anotherboat, leaving the two to talk over the sad details.
They disembarked at Whitehall-stairs; Raleigh, Sidney, and Cumberlandwent to the palace; and the two brothers to their mother's lodgings.
Amyas had prepared his speech to Frank about Rose Salterne, but now thatit was come to the point, he had not courage
to begin, and longed thatFrank would open the matter. Frank, too, shrank from what he knew mustcome, and all the more because he was ignorant that Amyas had been toBideford, or knew aught of the Rose's disappearance.
So they went upstairs; and it was a relief to both of them to find thattheir mother was at the Abbey; for it was for her sake that both dreadedwhat was coming. So they went and stood in the bay-window which lookedout upon the river, and talked of things indifferent, and lookedearnestly at each other's faces by the fading light, for it was nowthree years since they had met.
Years and events had deepened the contrast between the two brothers; andFrank smiled with affectionate pride as he looked up in Amyas's face,and saw that he was no longer merely the rollicking handy sailor-lad,but the self-confident and stately warrior, showing in every look andgesture,
"The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill,"
worthy of one whose education had been begun by such men as Drake andGrenville, and finished by such as Raleigh and Gilbert. His long lockswere now cropped close to the head; but as a set-off, the lips and chinwere covered with rich golden beard; his face was browned by a thousandsuns and storms; a long scar, the trophy of some Irish fight, crossedhis right temple; his huge figure had gained breadth in proportion toits height; and his hand, as it lay upon the window-sill, was hard andmassive as a smith's. Frank laid his own upon it, and sighed; and Amyaslooked down, and started at the contrast between the two--so slender,bloodless, all but transparent, were the delicate fingers of thecourtier. Amyas looked anxiously into his brother's face. It waschanged, indeed, since they last met. The brilliant red was still oneither cheek, but the white had become dull and opaque; the lips werepale, the features sharpened; the eyes glittered with unnatural fire:and when Frank told Amyas that he looked aged, Amyas could not helpthinking that the remark was far more true of the speaker himself.
Trying to shut his eyes to the palpable truth, he went on with his chat,asking the names of one building after another.
"And so this is old Father Thames, with his bank of palaces?"
"Yes. His banks are stately enough; yet, you see, he cannot stay to lookat them. He hurries down to the sea; and the sea into the ocean; and theocean Westward-ho, forever. All things move Westward-ho. Perhaps we maymove that way ourselves some day, Amyas."
"What do you mean by that strange talk?"
"Only that the ocean follows the primum mobile of the heavens, and flowsforever from east to west. Is there anything so strange in my thinkingof that, when I am just come from a party where we have been drinkingsuccess to Westward-ho?"
"And much good has come of it! I have lost the best friend and thenoblest captain upon earth, not to mention all my little earnings, inthat same confounded gulf of Westward-ho."
"Yes, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's star has set in the West--why not? Sun,moon, and planets sink into the West: why not the meteors of this lowerworld? why not a will-o'-the-wisp like me, Amyas?"
"God forbid, Frank!"
"Why, then? Is not the West the land of peace, and the land of dreams?Do not our hearts tell us so each time we look upon the setting sun, andlong to float away with him upon the golden-cushioned clouds? They burymen with their faces to the East. I should rather have mine turnedto the West, Amyas, when I die; for I cannot but think it some divineinstinct which made the ancient poets guess that Elysium lay beneath thesetting sun. It is bound up in the heart of man, that longing for theWest. I complain of no one for fleeing away thither beyond the utmostsea, as David wished to flee, and be at peace."
"Complain of no one for fleeing thither?" asked Amyas. "That is morethan I do."
Frank looked inquiringly at him; and then--
"No. If I had complained of any one, it would have been of you just now,for seeming to be tired of going Westward-ho."
"Do you wish me to go, then?"
"God knows," said Frank, after a moment's pause. "But I must tell younow, I suppose, once and for all. That has happened at Bideford which--"
"Spare us both, Frank; I know all. I came through Bideford on my wayhither; and came hither not merely to see you and my mother, but to askyour advice and her permission."
"True heart! noble heart!" cried Frank. "I knew you would be stanch!"
"Westward-ho it is, then?"
"Can we escape?"
"We?"
"Amyas, does not that which binds you bind me?"
Amyas started back, and held Frank by the shoulders at arm's length; ashe did so, he could feel through, that his brother's arms were but skinand bone.
"You? Dearest man, a month of it would kill you!"
Frank smiled, and tossed his head on one side in his pretty way.
"I belong to the school of Thales, who held that the ocean is the motherof all life; and feel no more repugnance at returning to her bosom againthan Humphrey Gilbert did."
"But, Frank,--my mother?"
"My mother knows all; and would not have us unworthy of her."
"Impossible! She will never give you up!"
"All things are possible to them that believe in God, my brother; andshe believes. But, indeed, Doctor Dee, the wise man, gave her but thissummer I know not what of prognostics and diagnostics concerning me. Iam born, it seems, under a cold and watery planet, and need, if I am tobe long-lived, to go nearer to the vivifying heat of the sun, and therebask out my little life, like fly on wall. To tell truth, he has biddenme spend no more winters here in the East; but return to our nativesea-breezes, there to warm my frozen lungs; and has so filled mymother's fancy with stories of sick men, who were given up for lost inGermany and France, and yet renewed their youth, like any serpent oreagle, by going to Italy, Spain, and the Canaries, that she herself willbe more ready to let me go than I to leave her all alone. And yet I mustgo, Amyas. It is not merely that my heart pants, as Sidney's does, asevery gallant's ought, to make one of your noble choir of Argonauts,who are now replenishing the earth and subduing it for God and for thequeen; it is not merely, Amyas, that love calls me,--love tyrannous anduncontrollable, strengthened by absence, and deepened by despair; buthonor, Amyas--my oath--"
And he paused for lack of breath, and bursting into a violent fit ofcoughing, leaned on his brother's shoulder, while Amyas cried,
"Fools, fools that we were--that I was, I mean--to take that fantasticalvow!"
"Not so," answered a gentle voice from behind: "you vowed for thesake of peace on earth, and good-will toward men, and 'Blessed are thepeacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.' No my sons,be sure that such self-sacrifice as you have shown will meet its fullreward at the hand of Him who sacrificed Himself for you."
"Oh, mother! mother!" said Amyas, "and do you not hate the very sight ofme--come here to take away your first-born?"
"My boy, God takes him, and not you. And if I dare believe in suchpredictions, Doctor Dee assured me that some exceeding honor awaited youboth in the West, to each of you according to your deserts."
"Ah!" said Amyas. "My blessing, I suppose, will be like Esau's, to liveby my sword; while Jacob here, the spiritual man, inherits the kingdomof heaven, and an angel's crown."
"Be it what it may, it will surely be a blessing, as long as you aresuch, my children, as you have been. At least my Frank will be safe fromthe intrigues of court, and the temptations of the world. Would that Itoo could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, now," said she,laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up into his face withone of her most winning smiles, "I have heard of heroic mothers erenow who went forth with their sons to battle, and cheered them on tovictory. Why should I not go with you on a more peaceful errand? I couldnurse the sick, if there were any; I could perhaps have speech of thatpoor girl, and win her back more easily than you. She might listen towords from a woman--a woman, too, who has loved--which she could nothear from men. At least I could mend and wash for you. I suppose it isas easy to play the good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!"
&
nbsp; Amyas looked from one to the other.
"God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! mother! youknow not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you with me. Thisis a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to be; one that must beworked out, not with kind words, but with sharp shot and cold steel."
"How?" cried both together, aghast.
"I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay themwith Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal subject ofthe queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear conscience on my ownprivate quarrel, unless I do all the harm that my hand finds to do, byday and night, to her enemies, and the enemies of God."
"What nobler knight-errantry?" said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. Leighshuddered.
"What! Frank too?" she said, half to herself; but her sons knew what shemeant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as she knew itto be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank as well shouldbecome "a man of blood," was more than her gentle heart could face atfirst sight. That one youthful duel of his he had carefully concealedfrom her, knowing her feeling on such matters. And it seemed toodreadful to her to associate that gentle spirit with all the ferocitiesand the carnage of a battlefield. "And yet," said she to herself, "isthis but another of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one byone?" And then, catching at a last hope, she answered--
"Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she permits,how can I gainsay her wisdom?"
And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.
But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused Amyas atfirst, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good deal whenhe found it earnest. For Frank looked forward to asking the queen'spermission for his voyage with the most abject despondency and terror.Two or three days passed before he could make up his mind to ask foran interview with her; and he spent the time in making as much interestwith Leicester, Hatton, and Sidney, as if he were about to sue for areprieve from the scaffold.
So said Amyas, remarking, further, that the queen could not cut his headoff for wanting to go to sea.
"But what axe so sharp as her frown?" said Frank in most lugubrioustone.
Amyas began to whistle in a very rude way.
"Ah, my brother, you cannot comprehend the pain of parting from her."
"No, I can't. I would die for the least hair of her royal head, Godbless it! but I could live very well from now till Doomsday without eversetting eyes on the said head."
"Plato's Troglodytes regretted not that sunlight which they had neverbeheld."
Amyas, not understanding this recondite conceit, made no answer to it,and there the matter ended for the time. But at last Frank obtained hisaudience; and after a couple of hours' absence returned quite pale andexhausted.
"Thank Heaven, it is over! She was very angry at first--what else couldshe be?--and upbraided me with having set my love so low. I could onlyanswer, that my fatal fault was committed before the sight of her hadtaught me what was supremely lovely, and only worthy of admiration. Thenshe accused me of disloyalty in having taken an oath which bound me tothe service of another than her. I confessed my sin with tears, and whenshe threatened punishment, pleaded that the offence had avenged itselfheavily already,--for what worse punishment than exile from the sunlightof her presence, into the outer darkness which reigns where she is not?Then she was pleased to ask me, how I could dare, as her sworn servant,to desert her side in such dangerous times as these; and asked me how Ishould reconcile it to my conscience, if on my return I found her deadby the assassin's knife? At which most pathetic demand I could onlythrow myself at once on my own knees and her mercy, and so awaitedmy sentence. Whereon, with that angelic pity which alone makes herawfulness endurable, she turned to Hatton and asked, 'What say you,Mouton? Is he humbled sufficiently?' and so dismissed me."
"Heigh-ho!" yawned Amyas;
"If the bridge had been stronger, My tale had been longer."
"Amyas! Amyas!" quoth Frank, solemnly, "you know not what power over thesoul has the native and God-given majesty of royalty (awful enough initself) when to it is superadded the wisdom of the sage, and therewithalthe tenderness of the woman. Had I my will, there should be in everyrealm not a salique, but an anti-salique law: whereby no kings, but onlyqueens should rule mankind. Then would weakness and not power be to manthe symbol of divinity; love, and not cunning, would be the arbiter ofevery cause; and chivalry, not fear, the spring of all obedience."
"Humph! There's some sense in that," quoth Amyas. "I'd run a mile fora woman when I would not walk a yard for a man; and--Who is this ourmother is bringing in? The handsomest fellow I ever saw in my life!"
Amyas was not far wrong; for Mrs. Leigh's companion was none other thanMr. Secretary, Amyas's Smerwick Fort acquaintance; alias Colin Clout,alias Immerito, alias Edmund Spenser. Some half-jesting conversation hadseemingly been passing between the poet and the saint; for as they camein she said with a smile (which was somewhat of a forced one)--"Well,my dear sons, you are sure of immortality, at least on earth; for Mr.Spenser has been vowing to me to give your adventure a whole canto toitself in his 'Faerie Queene'."
"And you no less, madam," said Spenser. "What were the story of theGracchi worth without the figure of Cornelia? If I honor the fruit, Imust not forget the stem which bears it. Frank, I congratulate you."
"Then you know the result of my interview, mother?"
"I know everything, and am content," said Mrs. Leigh.
"Mrs. Leigh has reason to be content," said Spenser, "with that which isbut her own likeness."
Spare your flattery to an old woman, Mr. Spenser. When, pray, did I"(with a most loving look at Frank) "refuse knighthood for duty's sake?"
"Knighthood?" cried Amyas. "You never told me that, Frank!"
"That may well be, Captain Leigh," said Spenser; "but believe me, hermajesty (so Hatton assures me) told him this day, no less than that bygoing on this quest he deprived himself of that highest earthly honor,which crowned heads are fain to seek from their own subjects."
Spenser did not exaggerate. Knighthood was then the prize of merit only;and one so valuable, that Elizabeth herself said, when asked why she didnot bestow a peerage upon some favorite, that having already knightedhim, she had nothing better to bestow. It remained for young Essex tobegin the degradation of the order in his hapless Irish campaign, andfor James to complete that degradation by his novel method of raisingmoney by the sale of baronetcies; a new order of hereditary knighthoodwhich was the laughing-stock of the day, and which (however venerableit may have since become) reflects anything but honor upon its firstpossessors.
"I owe you no thanks, Colin," said Frank, "for having broached mysecret: but I have lost nothing after all. There is still an order ofknighthood in which I may win my spurs, even though her majesty refuseme the accolade."
"What, then? you will not take it from a foreign prince?"
Frank smiled.
"Have you never read of that knighthood which is eternal in the heavens,and of those true cavaliers whom John saw in Patmos, riding on whitehorses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, knights-errant in theeverlasting war against the False Prophet and the Beast? Let me butbecome worthy of their ranks hereafter, what matter whether I be calledSir Frank on earth?"
"My son," said Mrs. Leigh, "remember that they follow One whose vestureis dipped, not in the blood of His enemies, but in His own."
"I have remembered it for many a day; and remembered, too, that thegarments of the knights may need the same tokens as their captain's."
"Oh, Frank! Frank! is not His precious blood enough to cleanse all sin,without the sacrifice of our own?"
"We may need no more than His blood, mother, and yet He may need ours,"said Frank.
* * * * *
How that conversation ended I know not, nor whether Spenser fulfilledhis purpose of introducing the two brothers and their mother into his"Faerie Queene." If so, the manusc
ripts must have been lost among thosewhich perished (along with Spenser's baby) in the sack of Kilcolman bythe Irish in 1598. But we need hardly regret the loss of them; for thetemper of the Leighs and their mother is the same which inspires everycanto of that noblest of poems; and which inspired, too, hundreds inthose noble days, when the chivalry of the Middle Ages was wedded to thefree thought and enterprise of the new.
* * * * *
So mother and sons returned to Bideford, and set to work. Frankmortgaged a farm; Will Cary did the same (having some land of his ownfrom his mother). Old Salterne grumbled at any man save himself spendinga penny on the voyage, and forced on the adventurers a good ship of twohundred tons burden, and five hundred pounds toward fitting her out;Mrs. Leigh worked day and night at clothes and comforts of every kind;Amyas had nothing to give but his time and his brains: but, as Salternesaid, the rest would have been of little use without them; and day afterday he and the old merchant were on board the ship, superintendingwith their own eyes the fitting of every rope and nail. Cary went aboutbeating up recruits; and made, with his jests and his frankness, thebest of crimps: while John Brimblecombe, beside himself with joy,toddled about after him from tavern to tavern, and quay to quay, exaltedfor the time being (as Cary told him) into a second Peter the Hermit;and so fiercely did he preach a crusade against the Spaniards, throughBideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfracombe, that Amyas might havehad a hundred and fifty loose fellows in the first fortnight. But heknew better: still smarting from the effects of a similar haste in theNewfoundland adventure, he had determined to take none but picked men;and by dint of labor he obtained them.
Only one scapegrace did he take into his crew, named Parracombe; andby that scapegrace hangs a tale. He was an old schoolfellow of hisat Bideford, and son of a merchant in that town--one of those unluckymembers who are "nobody's enemy but their own"--a handsome, idle,clever fellow, who used his scholarship, of which he had picked up somesmattering, chiefly to justify his own escapades, and to string songstogether. Having drunk all that he was worth at home, he had in apenitent fit forsworn liquor, and tormented Amyas into taking him tosea, where he afterwards made as good a sailor as any one else,but sorely scandalized John Brimblecombe by all manner of hereticalarguments, half Anacreontic, half smacking of the rather loose doctrinesof that "Family of Love" which tormented the orthodoxy and morality ofmore than one Bishop of Exeter. Poor Will Parracombe! he was born a fewcenturies too early. Had he but lived now, he might have publisheda volume or two of poetry, and then settled down on the staff of anewspaper. Had he even lived thirty years later than he did, he mighthave written frantic tragedies or filthy comedies for the edification ofJames's profligate metropolis, and roistered it in taverns with Marlowe,to die as Marlowe did, by a footman's sword in a drunken brawl. But inthose stern days such weak and hysterical spirits had no fair vent fortheir "humors," save in being reconciled to the Church of Rome, andplotting with Jesuits to assassinate the queen, as Parry and Somerville,and many other madmen, did.
So, at least, some Jesuit or other seems to have thought, shortly afterAmyas had agreed to give the spendthrift a berth on board. For one dayAmyas, going down to Appledore about his business, was called into thelittle Mariners' Rest inn, to extract therefrom poor Will Parracombe,who (in spite of his vow) was drunk and outrageous, and had vowed thedeath of the landlady and all her kin. So Amyas fetched him out by thecollar, and walked him home thereby to Bideford; during which walk Willtold him a long and confused story; how an Egyptian rogue had met himthat morning on the sands by Boathythe, offered to tell his fortune,and prophesied to him great wealth and honor, but not from the Queen ofEngland; had coaxed him to the Mariners' Rest, and gambled with himfor liquor, at which it seemed Will always won, and of course drank hiswinnings on the spot; whereon the Egyptian began asking him all sorts ofquestions about the projected voyage of the Rose--a good many of which,Will confessed, he had answered before he saw the fellow's drift;after which the Egyptian had offered him a vast sum of money to do somedesperate villainy; but whether it was to murder Amyas or the queen,whether to bore a hole in the bottom of the good ship Rose or to set theTorridge on fire by art-magic, he was too drunk to recollect exactly.Whereon Amyas treated three-quarters of the story as a tipsy dream,and contented himself by getting a warrant against the landlady forharboring "Egyptians," which was then a heavy offence--a gipsy disguisebeing a favorite one with Jesuits and their emissaries. She of coursedenied that any gipsy had been there; and though there were some whothought they had seen such a man come in, none had seen him go outagain. On which Amyas took occasion to ask, what had become of thesuspicious Popish ostler whom he had seen at the Mariners' Rest threeyears before; and discovered, to his surprise, that the said ostlerhad vanished from the very day of Don Guzman's departure from Bideford.There was evidently a mystery somewhere: but nothing could be proved;the landlady was dismissed with a reprimand, and Amyas soon forgot thewhole matter, after rating Parracombe soundly. After all, he could nothave told the gipsy (if one existed) anything important; for the specialdestination of the voyage (as was the custom in those times, for fear ofJesuits playing into the hands of Spain) had been carefully kept secretamong the adventurers themselves, and, except Yeo and Drew, none of themen had any suspicion that La Guayra was to be their aim.
And Salvation Yeo?
Salvation was almost wild for a few days, at the sudden prospect ofgoing in search of his little maid, and of fighting Spaniards once morebefore he died. I will not quote the texts out of Isaiah and the Psalmswith which his mouth was filled from morning to night, for fear ofseeming irreverent in the eyes of a generation which does not believe,as Yeo believed, that fighting the Spaniards was as really fighting inGod's battle against evil as were the wars of Joshua or David. But theold man had his practical hint too, and entreated to be sent back toPlymouth to look for men.
"There's many a man of the old Pelican, sir, and of Captain Hawkins'sMinion that knows the Indies as well as I, and longs to be back again.There's Drew, sir, that we left behind (and no better sailing-master forus in the West-country, and has accounts against the Spaniards, too; forit was his brother, the Barnstaple man, that was factor aboard of poorMr. Andrew Barker, and got clapt into the Inquisition at the Canaries);you promised him, sir, that night he stood by you on board the Raleigh:and if you'll be as good as your word, he'll be as good as his; andbring a score more brave fellows with him."
So off went Yeo to Plymouth, and returned with Drew and a score of oldnever-strikes. One look at their visages, as Yeo proudly ushered theminto the Ship Tavern, showed Amyas that they were of the metal which hewanted, and that, with the four North-Devon men who had gone round theworld with him in the Pelican (who all joined in the first week), he hada reserve-force on which he could depend in utter need; and that utterneed might come he knew as well as any.
Nor was this all which Yeo had brought; for he had with him a letterfrom Sir Francis Drake, full of regrets that he had not seen "his dearlad" as he went through Plymouth. "But indeed I was up to Dartmoor,surveying with cross-staff and chain, over my knees in bog for a threeweeks or more. For I have a project to bring down a leat of fair waterfrom the hill-tops right into Plymouth town, cutting off the headsof Tavy, Meavy, Wallcomb, and West Dart, and thereby purging Plymouthharbor from the silt of the mines whereby it has been choked of lateyears, and giving pure drink not only to the townsmen, but to the fleetsof the queen's majesty; which if I do, I shall both make some poorreturn to God for all His unspeakable mercies, and erect unto myself amonument better than of brass or marble, not merely honorable to me, butuseful to my countrymen."* Whereon Frank sent Drake a pretty epigram,comparing Drake's projected leat to that river of eternal life whereofthe just would drink throughout eternity, and quoting (after the fashionof those days) John vii. 38; while Amyas took more heed of a practicalappendage to the same letter, which was a list of hints scrawled forhis use by Captain John Hawkins himself, on all sea matters, fromthe mounting of or
dnance to the use of vitriol against the scurvy, indefault of oranges and "limmons;" all which stood Amyas in good steadduring the ensuing month, while Frank grew more and more proud of hisbrother, and more and more humble about himself.
* This noble monument of Drake's piety and public spirit still remains in full use.
For he watched with astonishment how the simple sailor, without genius,scholarship, or fancy, had gained, by plain honesty, patience, andcommon sense, a power over the human heart, and a power over his work,whatsoever it might be, which Frank could only admire afar off. The menlooked up to him as infallible, prided themselves on forestalling hiswishes, carried out his slightest hint, worked early and late to wina smile from him; while as for him, no detail escaped him, no drudgerysickened him, no disappointment angered him, till on the 15th ofNovember, 1583, dropped down from Bideford Quay to Appledore Pool thetall ship Rose, with a hundred men on board (for sailors packed closein those days), beef, pork, biscuit, and good ale (for ale went to seaalways then) in abundance, four culverins on her main deck, her poop andforecastle well fitted with swivels of every size, and her racks so fullof muskets, calivers, long bows, pikes, and swords, that all agreed sowell-appointed a ship had never sailed "out over Bar."
The next day being Sunday, the whole crew received the Communiontogether at Northam Church, amid a mighty crowd; and then going on boardagain, hove anchor and sailed out over the Bar before a soft east wind,to the music of sacbut, fife, and drum, with discharge of all ordnance,great and small, with cheering of young and old from cliff and strandand quay, and with many a tearful prayer and blessing upon that gallantbark, and all brave hearts on board.
And Mrs. Leigh who had kissed her sons for the last time after theCommunion at the altar-steps (and what more fit place for a mother'skiss?) went to the rocky knoll outside the churchyard wall, and watchedthe ship glide out between the yellow denes, and lessen slowly hour byhour into the boundless West, till her hull sank below the dim horizon,and her white sails faded away into the gray Atlantic mist, perhapsforever.
And Mrs. Leigh gathered her cloak about her, and bowed her head andworshipped; and then went home to loneliness and prayer.
Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth Page 16
